Miscellaneous unorganized material/WEYI-TV
edit History The station is one of the nation's earliest UHF television stations, signing on as WKNX-TV Channel 57 in April 1953. Originally co-owned with WKNX radio (AM 1210, now WNEM at AM 1250), it was a CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation; ABC was shared with DuMont affiliate WTAC-TV and later then-NBC affiliate WNEM-TV (now a sister station to the former WKNX radio) until 1958 when WJRT-TV began operations. In 1965, the station changed channel numbers from 57 to 25, and in 1972 the station relocated to its current studios. The move was so that channel 25 would serve Flint, Saginaw and Bay City, just like WNEM-TV and WJRT -- prior to 1972, Flint's official CBS affiliate was Lansing's WJIM-TV. At the same time, new owners Rust Craft Broadcasting changed the station's call letters to WEYI to reflect the station's CBS affiliation. In 1979, Ziff-Davis acquired the Rust Craft stations through a merger. In 1983, WEYI along with then sister stations WROC-TV in Rochester, New York, WRDW-TV in Augusta, Georgia and WTOV-TV in Steubenville, Ohio were sold to Television Station Partners. On January 16, 1995, WEYI and WNEM-TV traded network affiliations, resulting in WEYI becoming an NBC station. This came as part of the affiliation deal between CBS and WNEM's owner Meredith Corporation (which also required KPHO-TV in Phoenix, Arizona to rejoin CBS after four decades without a network affiliation as a condition of keeping that network on KCTV in Kansas City, Missouri) which, in turn, was part of the larger U.S. television network affiliate switches of 1994 that also saw CBS' longtime affiliate in adjacent Detroit, WJBK, switch to Fox. The Flint-Saginaw market is the only known market where the CBS affiliation moved from a relatively weak UHF station to a higher-rated VHF station during this period. WEYI was also forced to take the NBC affiliation largely by default due to ABC's then-pending purchase of WJRT. In early-January 1996, Television Station Partners sold WEYI, WROC and WTOV to Smith Broadcasting (its other station, WRDW, went to what is today Gray Television). In 1997, the WEYI license was transferred to Smith Broadcasting subsidiary Sunrise Television, which later merged with the LIN TV Corporation in 2002. The Sunrise-LIN merger briefly made WEYI a sister station to fellow NBC affiliate WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids and ABC affiliate WOTV in Battle Creek. In May 2004, the station's current owners, Barrington Broadcasting, acquired the station. WEYI was Barrington's first station in Michigan; in March 2006, it was joined by Northern Michigan's WPBN & WTOM, Marquette's WLUC-TV and, to a degree, Toledo's WNWO-TV as part of Barrington's family of stations in Michigan, following Barrington's purchase of those stations from Raycom Media. In 2004, Barrington Broadcasting launched Mid-Michigan's WB (WBSF), a station affiliated with The WB Television Network available on cable and through WEYI's digital signal. The deal was made primarily because WKBD declined to carry Detroit Pistons basketball, switching instead to WMYD, which is not available on most mid-Michigan cable systems. WBSF is now the CW 46 and after the construction of a new tower in 2007, is available on all cable systems and by digital signal as well. edit Digital television edit Channel lineup *Over-the-air, WEYI and WBSF are in 720p, although NBC and The CW prefer to use 1080i. The latter is used on its cable and satellite version, however. edit Analog-to-digital conversion WEYI shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009 2, as part of the DTV transition in the United States. WEYI-DT remained on its current pre-transition channel number 30 3 using PSIP to display WEYI-DT's virtual channel as 25. Also, WBSF became available on a separate digital transmitter on channel 46. 4 edit On-air staff edit Current on-air staff Anchors *'Elizabeth MacFarland' - weekday mornings "NBC25 Today" *'Jenny Suniga' - weeknights at 6 and 11 PM *'Dan Armstrong' - weeknights at 6 PM Reporters *'Kim Russell' - weekend anchor and general assignment reporter *'Dave Kinchen' - general assignment reporter (also fill-in weather anchor) NBC25 Weather Team *'Mark Torregrossa' - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 6 and 11 PM *'Bryan Hughes' - Meteorologist; weekday mornings "NBC25 Today" *'Kevin Usealman' - Meteorologist; weekends Sports team *'Dillon Collier' - Sports Director; weeknights at 6 and 11PM, Sunday SportsPlus *'Matt Waymire' - Sports Anchor edit Former on-air staff *Mickey York - sports anchor (now host on Fox Sports Detroit)5 *Doug Karsch - sports reporter (now WXYT-FM host and Michigan Wolverines sports reporter) 6 *Jim Brandstatter - sports reporter (now Michigan Wolverines Football and Detroit Lions radio analyst) 7 *Eric Greene - weeknight anchor/executive producer *Roop Raj - reporter/anchor/weather (now at WJBK) 8 *Leigh Moody (now at Bay News 9) *Colleen (Hammond) Wine - reporter/anchor/weather (went to The Weather Channel, and is now a Texas-based author and motivational speaker. 9) This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions. edit News/station presentation edit Newscast titles *''TV-25 News'' (1960s-1980s) *''25 News'' (1980s-early 1990s) *''WEYI-witness News'' (early-mid 1990s) *''NBC 25 News'' (late 1990s-2002 and 2006-present) *''NewsCenter 25'' (2002-2006) edit Station slogans *''Get Ready for 25'' (1990-1991; localized version of CBS ad campaign) *''Moving Mid-Michigan Forward'' (2006-2008) This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions. edit Anti-competitive practices WEYI was blamed for forcing competing NBC affiliate WDIV from Detroit off of Comcast's Flint system (which serves most of Genesee County), as well as starting the syndication exclusitivity controversy on Comcast Flint. WDIV was once available on Comcast's Flint system. However, in 2004, WEYI filed a complaint with the FCC, claiming it was losing NBC viewers to WDIV, most likely due to WDIV's new high definition picture. According to WEYI's website, it still uses Betamax equipment, and none of its local or syndicated programming is currently in HD. 10 The FCC ruled in favor of WEYI 11 and for a brief period, national NBC programs on WDIV were unavailable on Comcast Flint. Eventually, in August 2006, Comcast Flint removed WDIV from the system completely, replacing it with the new My 5. Since then, several Flint affiliates filed similar complaints with their Detroit-affiliated counterpart stations (WJRT-TV against WXYZ-TV, WBSF against WKBD, and WSMH against WJBK); however the Detroit affiliates remain on Comcast Flint, with the blackouts continuing. The blackouts also affected Comcast subscribers in Holly, which is located in northwestern Oakland County, part of the Detroit television market -- Comcast viewers in that area receive their programming from the Flint headend, instead of one in Oakland County, or elsewhere in Metro Detroit. edit External links *Query the FCC's TV station database for WEYI *BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WEYI-TV edit References #'^' Tower Registration at FCC website #'^' Digital TV Channel Assignments from the FCC website #'^' FCC.gov - Appendix B: All Full Power Television Stations by DMA, Indicating Those Terminating Analog Service on or before February 17, 2009 #'^' FCC info - WBSF #'^' Fox Sports Detroit on air talent #'^' "Detroit's 97.1 The Ticket - Ticket Karsch & Anderson Bios". CBS Radio. http://www.971theticket.com/pages/1180039.php. Retrieved 2008-06-20. #'^' "DSBA Member Roster Jim Brandstatter". detroitsportsbroadcasters.com. http://www.detroitsportsbroadcasters.com/member.php?memberid=16. Retrieved 2009-04-17. #'^' WJBK - Roop Raj Bio #'^' Colleen Hammond Official Site #'^' WEYI Official Site - Staff Listing #'^' FCC order CSR-6342-N